Can You Suspend a Hospitality Employee Without Pay? UK Law Explained
Can an employer suspend without pay in the UK? Almost certainly not, unless your contract expressly permits it. Here is what the law says, what your contract needs to include, and what happens if you get it wrong.
Leon Mclean
Co-founder, Birchlow · Last reviewed July 2026
The short answer to whether you can suspend a hospitality employee without pay is almost certainly no. UK employment law does not give employers an automatic right to withhold pay during a suspension. The employee is at home because you have told them to stay away, not because they have chosen not to work. Pay continues.
This page answers the most common questions about unpaid suspension in the UK, with specific reference to the hospitality sector.
The default position: pay must continue
When an employer suspends an employee, the employment contract continues to run. The employee remains employed, remains ready to work, and remains entitled to their contractual pay. The fact that you have told them not to come in does not change this.
Under the Employment Rights Act 1996, an employer cannot make deductions from a worker's wages except in specific circumstances, including where the contract expressly authorises the deduction. Withholding pay during a suspension is a deduction. If the contract does not authorise it, the deduction is unlawful.
This applies regardless of the seriousness of the allegation. An employee suspended for alleged theft from the till is still entitled to full pay while the investigation takes place. If the investigation concludes that they did steal, dismissal is the remedy. Withholding pay during the investigation is not.
When your contract allows unpaid suspension
Some employment contracts include a clause that expressly permits unpaid suspension in specific circumstances, typically limited to gross misconduct allegations. If your contract contains such a clause and it is clearly worded, you may have the contractual right to suspend without pay.
However, even then, three conditions should be met before you exercise that right.
The clause must be clear. Vague references to the employer's right to suspend, without expressly addressing pay, are unlikely to be sufficient. The right to withhold pay must be stated clearly.
The circumstances must warrant it. Even a valid contractual right to suspend without pay should be used proportionately. Using it for every suspension, regardless of the severity of the allegation or the financial impact on the employee, may be challengeable as an exercise of a contractual right in bad faith.
You must communicate it clearly. The suspension letter should state, where unpaid suspension is being applied, the contractual basis for withholding pay and the period for which pay will not be paid.
If you are uncertain whether your contract gives you this right, the safe default is to suspend on full pay. The cost of full pay during a short investigation is almost always less than the cost of defending a breach of contract claim.
What happens if you suspend without pay incorrectly
Withholding pay during a suspension without contractual authority gives rise to several potential claims.
Unauthorised deduction from wages. Under the Employment Rights Act 1996, the employee can bring a claim in the employment tribunal for the deducted amount. These claims are straightforward to prove and the employer has limited defences where the contract does not authorise the deduction.
Breach of contract. The employee can bring a breach of contract claim, either in the employment tribunal or in the civil courts, for the unpaid amount.
Constructive dismissal. If the employee treats the unlawful withholding of pay as a fundamental breach of contract and resigns as a result, they may be able to bring a constructive dismissal claim. This is a higher bar, but a sustained refusal to pay a suspended employee is a strong basis for such an argument.
From January 2027, the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims, including constructive dismissal, drops from two years to six months. A hospitality employee who has been with you for seven months and is suspended without pay unlawfully will have the full range of tribunal rights available to them from January 2027.
Frequently asked questions
Can I suspend someone on zero hours without pay?
No. Zero hours workers who are genuinely workers, rather than self-employed, are entitled to be paid for the hours they work. Suspension removes the obligation to work and the obligation to pay for that work, but only if the suspension is paid. If you suspend a zero hours worker and simply stop offering them shifts, that is not a suspension in the legal sense. It is a potentially unlawful reduction in work.
What if I cannot afford to pay someone during a suspension?
Financial difficulty does not create a right to withhold pay. If paying a suspended employee creates genuine cash flow difficulties, the answer is to complete the investigation as quickly as possible and bring the suspension to an end. The longer a paid suspension runs, the greater the cost.
Can I require the employee to use annual leave during the suspension?
You can require an employee to take annual leave during a suspension if you give sufficient notice under the Working Time Regulations 1998. The required notice is twice the length of the leave you want the employee to take. Requiring an employee to use annual leave as a way to avoid paying suspension pay, without following the correct notice requirements, may itself give rise to a claim.
What if the employee is also on sick leave?
If an employee goes off sick during a suspension, the position depends on your contract and sick pay terms. The employee should report their sickness in the normal way and receive sick pay in accordance with the contract and statutory sick pay rules. The suspension and the sickness are two separate things running in parallel.
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